Disciplinary Action
by White Aster
Summary: Ironhide comes down hard on Sideswipe, and Sideswipe doesn't complain. Much.


_Author's Note: Set very pre-movie._

Sideswipe did not sneak well. It wasn't in his nature. Also, trying to sneak in a cargo bay filled with milling troops fresh off the battlefield was pretty impossible. So he was NOT trying to sneak past the obviously irate Ironhide, while said Ironhide ripped a bedraggled and slightly singed Roadbuster a new exhaust.

"-and YOU! GEARSTICK! Sideswipe, get your AFT over here!"

Slag.

Sideswipe's wheels squeaked as he stopped not-sneaking. He contemplated, for a nanosec, just running. He was faster than Ironhide-

::You run from me, scraplet, I WILL make you regret it,:: growled in his comm.

-but not faster than Ironhide's cold and very thorough revenge.

Sideswipe whipped around in a tight circle, a bored look plastered over his faceplates. "Yeah? What?"

Ironhide was in rare form, stalking forward like black death, his cannons still warm and weapon systems still on standby. "Are you blind and deaf, or did you just FORGET out there that there was such a thing as a PLAN? You were supposed to hold 119 Zeta, and I take my optics off your insubordinate aft for FIVE FRAGGING KLIKS and you're off chasing Constructicons rather than guarding our flank! What the FRAG did you think you were doing?"

Sideswipe shrugged as he let his momentum skate him slowly around Ironhide. "I was pursuing high-value targets that were gonna get away before anyone else could get to them. What're you bitching about? Slagged Scavenger up but good, and oh, maybe that was why there wasn't a combiner ripping its way through our lines this time?"

"Wasn't your call to make," Ironhide growled, vocalizer low and dangerous and close enough to shiver delicate plates in Sideswipe's internals. "You left your unit with ONE veteran and a whole scrapload of rookies. If someone'd hit 119, they'd've been boiled slag."

"Operative word here: 'if'." Sideswipe shrugged again. "Didn't, though. It was a calculated risk, and it paid off."

Hot blue optics followed Sideswipe as he moved. "Doesn't matter. You deserted your post. I'm putting it on your record AND telling Corelight that it's YOUR fault that she's getting reassigned to your unit because YOU'RE obviously untrustworthy."

Sideswipe vented a sigh. Corelight. Great. The damned seeker already hated him. But the important part here was that he wasn't REALLY in trouble, or there'd be "demotion" somewhere in there. He grinned. "Yeah, yeah, I'm a bad soldier, gotta punish me."

Then he purred over comms, because why the Pit not? ::Frag, you're gorgeous when you're angry.::

Ironhide didn't flicker an optic. "And you are a GLITCH that's gonna get himself and the rest of his squad KILLED. Don't know why I even bother, you've obviously got SLAG FOR CHIPS."

"Yeah, yeah, not dead yet, blah blah, so we done here, or what?"

Ironhide's hand shot out, catching Sideswipe as he circled and reeling him in like a black hole. His systems were still running hot from the battle, burning against Sideswipe's own plating, which had just begun to cool. "Oh, we're not even CLOSE to done, you overclocked glitch. You're gonna go drill on squad tactics in 3A with the recruits-"

"Aw, you're kid-OW!"

Ironhide continued as if he'd not just been interrupted, nor thunked Sideswipe rattlingly hard on the helm. "-and you're gonna PAY FRAGGING ATTENTION and remind yourself that you're not the only fragging one out there and that those sparkling recruits' LIVES are depending on you being where they expect you. And when you're done with THAT, you're gonna report back to me for further orders."

::Mmm, those orders gonna involve fragging?:: Sideswipe didn't say it out loud, because he was not (despite several friends' and officers' evaluations) suicidal. Besides...if it got around that fragging Ironhide was a thing grunts could do, Sideswipe would be facing competition, and that just sounded like WORK.

Ironhide let him go, but his glyphs were dense with iworry/anger/heat/lust/I ::Those ORDERS are gonna involve me pinning you to the wall so those wheels of yours DANGLE and then maybe if you ask really nice I'll frag some SENSE into you, you glitchwit IDIOT.::

::Kinky.:: Sideswipe's glyph was definitely approving.

"Yes, SIR," Sideswipe said, skating backwards with a jaunty salute. "Anything you want, sir."

He skated away to find Remedial Squad Tactics, a smile on his face.


End file.
